def not the strongest book in the series. ( )

This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Night Huntress #5. Vampire Urban fantasy. Best read in series order at this point.
Cat and Bones go from one fraught situation to another. Friends, enemies or slaves. Everything can be turned on end, mixed up and ultimately used against them. Cat finds herself with new abilities, but is that good, or will it kill them instead.

The title of this book tells the story. On this side of the grave, there are ghouls. Human, vampires, ghouls are pitted against each other. Marie, Vlad and other characters return to bring both darkness and humor to the power play.
Engrossing and edge-of-seat tension and suspense. ( )

My favorite of the series so far. I like that Cat and Bones continue to grow and don’t just make the same mistakes over and over. I’m very glad I read Charles and Denise’s book and Mencheres and Kira’s book before this one (thank you, cranky reviewers), or I would have been confused. There was resolution to one of the larger problems our vampire buddies were having, and I was happy to see that it wouldn’t be drawn out into another book.
Fun series. I shall continue with it! ( )

Trigger warning: offensive language, eating disorder

For a book supposedly revolving around the simmering war between vampires and ghouls spurred on by Apollyon, there’s very little action. Most of the book is Cat and the gang trying to learn where Apollyon is and Cat worrying about her new restricted diet. Apollyon is trying to instigate a war between ghouls and vampires by accusing Cat of trying to cause a war between the two species partly because of her half-vampire status (even though Cat is now a full vampire). It’s stated that he did the same thing with Joan of Arc, who it turns out was the only other half-vampire in existence. The vampires back then offered to turn her into a full vampire or be burned at the stake. She chose the burning. I’ll admit that I don’t know a lot about Joan of Arc, but I understood her as a Christian martyr, so this twist on her story feels blasphemous even to me.

Read more at https://theparanormalreview.blogspot.com/2021/12/this-side-of-grave-by-jeaniene-... ( )

No doubt about it. I love these books. They're fun, exciting, dangerous, sexy and hilarious. I love the way that Frost has her characters grow and mature. We see Cat struggling to change her beliefs and her behaviors. We see her and Bones working to make their relationship work and not upset one another.

By this book, Cat and Bones are secure in their relationship and we don't have them doubting each other or struggling to stay together. Now, they're settled in with each other and working as a team. I love watching Cat deal with her growing abilities and learning how to deal with things. And I absolutely loved seeing so much of Vlad. (Can't wait to get to his books.)

Gilbert's narration is very good and I've long since gotten past my aversion to the voice she uses for Bones.

I highly recommend these books for the pure pleasure felt when reading them. ( )